Hull University Boat Club Ergathon

On Sunday 22nd of April Hull University Boat Club will be undertaking a fundraiser in the form of an 'ergathon'. Over the course of six hours, rowers of the Hull University Boat Club will row for an hour each on the rowing machines in St Stephens shopping centre in Hull.

We are a self-funded club and would be extremely grateful for your support and any donations. You will be able to watch a live-stream of the event and 15% of the money we are raising will be donated to Cardiac Risk in the Young, who support people diagnosed with life-threatening cardiac conditions, bereaving families, help promote heart screening programmes and fund medical research.

Hull University Boat Club was founded in 1947, and is treasured by a close community of rowers and alumni. We facilitate rowing and coxing for many different types of athlete ranging from beginners to intermediate rowers, whilst aiming to enable everyone to reach their full potential and subsequently put our club on the map.

Unfortunately, in recent years our own local boat house has been repeatedly vandalised and set on fire- being ultimately closed and deemed unfit for purpose through no fault of our own. Our determination and love for rowing, however, has spurred us on to find somewhere else to row. We have been rowing with Doncaster Rowing Club for a couple of years now, using their equipment and hoping for a time where we can afford to refurbish our boat house and build up a fleet of boats again (a far-fetched dream).

Despite now having settled in with Doncaster Rowing Club, where we travel 50 miles to row on the River Don 3 times a week, we struggle to support our rowers. Alongside limited training time and expensive fuel costs, we lack proper coaching. Our student Captains are tasked with juggling their coaching roles with busy University schedules and must give up so much of their rowing time to support their teammates. Most importantly, unlike almost every other University Club in the country, we are entirely self-funded and receive no external support.

Nevertheless, this year holds great promise for many crews within our men's and woman's squads. At White Rose Head 2016, our Fresher Men's 8+ won their first ever race, beating University clubs with much more support and expertise than our own through their own grit and determination. This is the first time freshers in our club has won at a BUCS event and the teams have been improving ever since, but we do not want our talented rowers to be let down by our lack of finance.

Fundraising events are, therefore, essential for the survival of our club. As we undertake a range of performance related challenges throughout the year, we depend heavily on the generosity of donors to supplement our financial struggles. Without your support, we simply will not be able to remain a competitive club. We ask you to understand our cause and help us continue to provide a platform upon which University rowers can try a new sport, make friends and experience competitive success.

We promise to give 15% of all donations to the Cardiac Risk in the Young, a charity we will be supporting for the first time this year out of importance to our members. Any funds we raise will go directly towards acquiring new equipment and ensuring that we can afford to send rowers, coxes and our dedicated squad captains to Doncaster for training and to races around the country.